Dealer Discounts on EVs

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Free Electrons!

Woohoo! Looks like I can cross that one off of the bucket list sooner
than I thought. Until now, I’ve always had to pay to charge up my Focus
Electric. Kudos to the City of Beverly Hills for providing free
electricity to go along with two free hours of covered parking in their
municipal parking garage, for poor souls like me that drive so much that
they’re bound to get an undeserved speeding ticket that begs to be
challenged in court.

He said he clocked me at 50 in a 35 with his laser gun. From my
perspective, I figure that he did this while mounting his motorcycle
with his backside turned toward me. He must have had that laser gun
strapped to his right butt cheek, pointing in my general direction. Or
maybe there’s some newfangled speed sensing device that can detect the
velocity of an object that’s not in line-of-sight. How else can he
explain how fast I was going before we saw each other? I was coming over
a hill and spotted him mounting his bike across the street, at the
bottom of the hill as I crested. Regardless, I can’t believe he pulled
me over… I’m in an electric vehicle, for crying out loud… aren’t these
things supposed to be painfully slow? Shouldn’t he have seen the
“Electric” emblem on my hatch while giving chase, then just back off and
let me go since there was no way such a contraption could have been
doing 50mph uphill? Unfortunately for me, that’s not how things went
down.

Fortunately we have California’s basic speed law, which in essence
allows folks to exceed the posted speed limit as long as they’re going
under 55mph and can prove that the conditions were not unsafe (i.e.
clear day, no traffic). So I decided to challenge the ticket, and I’m
glad I did, so far… got a free charge out of it, for starters. Then I
got free admission to an impromptu comedy performance… the judge doing
arraignments was hilarious and upbeat, commenting on how folks dress,
telling us about her flu shot ordeal earlier in the day, and making fun
of folks that were late or dozing off. If you ever get a traffic ticket
in Los Angeles, ask for a change of venue to the Beverly Hills
courthouse, then prepare to be entertained. Too bad the court is only
used for arraignments.

One more thing I learned by fighting this ticket… the California Vehicle Code (CVC 22511) says it’s illegal to not practice basic charging etiquette, so long as there’s a sign posted indicating so (see picture).

How cool is that? A city that enforces charging etiquette, and a
state that makes it easy for them to do so. Hopefully others follow
suit.